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Polygamist Convictions Overturned

The Utah Supreme Court on Tuesday morning threw out the rape convictions of the polygamous sect leader Warren S. Jeffs and sent the case back for a new trial, ruling that the instructions given to the jury during his prosecution were faulty.

But in a unanimous decision, the Utah Supreme Court ruled that a state judge had erred when he failed to tell the jury that Mr. Jeffs could not be found guilty unless he specifically intended for the girl’s husband to have nonconsensual sex with her, which Mr. Jeffs denied.

The ruling was a setback for Utah prosecutors, who had hoped that Mr. Jeffs would serve at least 10 years in prison.

The victim, Elissa Wall, claimed that Mr. Jeffs pressed her in 2001, at age 14, to marry her first cousin, Allen Steed. She said Mr. Steed then forced her to have sex. Prosecutors argued that Mr. Jeffs knew the marriage would lead to nonconsensual sex, but insisted that the union go forward anyway. Ms. Wall said that Mr. Jeffs had refused to release her from the marriage, despite her pleas.

But Mr. Jeffs’s lawyer, Wally Bugden, argued that though Mr. Jeffs had indeed encouraged the marriage and advised the couple to stay together, he never intended for Mr. Steed, who was 19 at the time, to rape Ms. Wall.

Mr. Jeffs’s legal team argued in its appeal that Judge James L. Shumate should have told the jury to focus on Mr. Steed’s actions, not on Mr. Jeffs’s sway over the couple in his capacity as the all-powerful leader of the sect, which has an estimated 10,000 members.

The State Supreme Court agreed, in a decision that added another jarring twist in a case that has riveted Utah and the close-knit, isolated polygamist communities of Hildale, Utah, and nearby Colorado City, Ariz., where Mr. Jeffs’s church is based.

“We regret the effect our opinion today may have on the victim of the underlying crime, to whom we do not wish to cause additional pain,” the Utah Supreme Court wrote in its ruling. “However, we must ensure that the laws are applied evenly and appropriately, in this case as in every case, in order to protect the constitutional principles on which our legal system is based.”

Reacting to the decision, Mr. Bugden said he was “thrilled” that the court “was willing to set aside the fact that a very unpopular defendant was charged with crimes in the state of Utah.” He said Mr. Jeffs’s counsel to Ms. Wall and Mr. Steed — specifically that they be fruitful and multiply — was commonly-used biblical language that did not make his client an accomplice to rape.

“We talk about the rule of law and that we don’t allow emotions and sentiment to enter the decision-making process,” Mr. Bugden said. “This is a resounding victory for the rule of law. The court agreed that the state’s legal theories were wrong from the get-go.”

Mr. Bugden visited Mr. Jeffs at the Utah State Prison in Draper after the hearing and described him “as very happy, very appreciative that a lot of people’s prayers have been answered.”

The Utah attorney general, Mark L. Shurtleff, said he was shocked by the court’s decision, adding that it would most likely be difficult to retry Mr. Jeffs on the same accomplice-to-rape charges.

“I am very disappointed, and I disagree,” he said. “But I do recognize and respect our judicial process and the Supreme Court’s responsibility not only for victims of crimes but people accused of crimes. But I am left scratching my head as to how we can, in the executive branch of law enforcement, go about protecting children from the actions of religious leaders like Warren Jeffs.”

Brian Filter, senior deputy attorney for Washington County, where Mr. Jeffs was tried, said local prosecutors were examining the court’s ruling and consulting with Ms. Wall and law enforcement officials before determining how to proceed.

Mr. Shurtleff said Mr. Jeffs would not be released from custody in Utah because there was still an outstanding warrant for his arrest in Texas, where prosecutors are seeking to extradite him on sexual assault and bigamy charges.

Mr. Jeffs was indicted in 2008 in Schleicher County, Tex., on a felony charge of sexually assaulting an under-age girl, with whom he is suspected of fathering a child. He also was indicted on separate bigamy and sexual assault charges, all of which stem from his time at the Yearning for Zion Ranch in Eldorado, a church compound that was raided in 2008 by Texas authorities over accusations of under-age marriage.

Jerry Strickland, a spokesman for the Texas attorney general’s office, said Texas authorities were working with their Utah counterparts to bring Mr. Jeffs to trial in Texas.

If convicted in Texas, Mr. Jeffs would face up to 99 years in prison.

A version of this article appears in print on July 28, 2010, on page A11 of the New York edition with the headline: Polygamist Sect Leader’s Rape Convictions Are Overturned. Order Reprints|Today's Paper|Subscribe